CPU Fan and Rear Case Fan Wire Loose Connection Issue with Motherboard

PoignantJ

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Jul 8, 2010
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Hi Toms Hardware, I would appreciate it if you all could assist me on a problem. I've had the PC I've currently been using for a close to a year now. It has been working fine until the last few days. The exact issue is what I mentioned in the title. The CPU fan and rear case in the last few days stopped working. When I opened up the PC and made sure the wires were connected properly and not loose, they worked fine again. However, the next day, when I tried rebooting or waking my computer up from sleep mode, it stopped working again. Then I repeated the process of making sure the wire connection to the motherboard wasn't loose for both fans and they worked again.

I'm not entirely sure if its the wires, but it seems that the the wires can't maintain a solid connection. Then again, it might be something entirely different. This only started happening out of the blue in the past few days. Note that the fan has problems starting up, but once it goes get going at its usual RPM, it goes smoothly without a hitch.

I would appreciate any suggestions you guys may have for me. At this point in time, I'm considering just outright replacing the fan and cpu fan/cooler.

The PC I've been using is this:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883230030

CPU: FX-4000 Series FX-4300 (3.80 GHz)
RAM: 4 GB DDR3
Motherboard Chipset: AMD 760G
CPU Fan: Cooler Master

Then I added to the system:
1. CORSAIR CX series CX430 430W 80 PLUS BRONZE Active PFC ATX12V & EPS12V Power Supply
2. Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model KVR16N11S8/4
3. ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Mini

UPDATE (9/30/2017):

Hi Toms Hardware. I've fixed the issue by replacing both the rear case fan and the CPU fan I was having issues with. It's working smoothly so far so it appears that the motherboard and connections were alright. As a result, the problems were with the fans themselves. However, it might not have been the fan wires as I guessed. The fans were working occasionally, and when they did work, they kept working without issue for the entire day.

When I handled the fans physically, I noticed the fans were very stiff even manually turning the fan.
Maybe the motors weren't able to get going for whatever reason, maybe lubricant, something might of gotten in there like dust, etc. etc. But once the fans got going, they were able to keep going without issue. Earlier, I even did a quick shut down and reboot back to back, and the fans turned off and on when I did so. However, when I shut it down overnight and turned it back on in the morning, it wasn't able to turn on.
 
Solution
Hi Toms Hardware, see my opening post. I solved the issue by replacing both the rear and CPU fan. Motherboard and connections were good. It was an issue with the fans themselves.

PoignantJ

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Jul 8, 2010
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It shouldn't be. I've seen the PC shut itself down a few times already because the CPU got too hot. I ran a game application to test if this was the case, it shut itself down because of the CPU heat generated.

Update:
I also checked the BIOS settings. The fan speed setting is not variable. It's set to run at maximum speed no matter what.
 

smashjohn

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Aug 14, 2017
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Hmmm.. That's really strange. Are your fans connected to the motherboard or to the PSU? I'm assuming the Motherboard. Can you swap and direct connect them to the PSU via a drive cable? This might produce errors because the BIOS will think they're disconnected, but they should run full tilt.
 

PoignantJ

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Hi Toms Hardware, see my opening post. I solved the issue by replacing both the rear and CPU fan. Motherboard and connections were good. It was an issue with the fans themselves.
 
Solution